It’s easy to mistake The Dog Stars for a canine-centric survival tale if you aren’t familiar with the source material.

Peter Heller’s 2012 novel uses the title as a double meaning — referencing both the star Sirius within the Canis Major constellation (hence, “the Dog Star”) and the very real bond between a man and his dog.

In Ridley Scott’s cinematic adaptation, the premise delivers a grounded, post-pandemic world devastated by a global flu. The narrative is driven by a mysterious radio transmission intercepted by Jacob Elordi’s Hig, a quiet pilot pushed by grief and an irrepressible human curiosity to see what’s left of the world beyond his refuge.

With a stacked cast, a legendary director, and rich thematic material, general moviegoers and book fans alike have plenty of reason to expect a post-apocalyptic thriller.

Sadly, as an adaptation, The Dog Stars underwhelms. What promises to be an edge-of-your-seat survival ride settles into a surprisingly dull story that lacks the punch of a post-apocalyptic thriller.

It isn’t a bad film, but it struggles to balance its atmospheric build-up with a rushed, squandered third act.

⚠️ Warning: Some spoilers ahead! ⚠️

Ridley Scott’s signature touch

For what it’s worth, Scott doesn’t take long to make his visual presence felt. The director fills the screen with sweeping tracking shots of Hig’s Cessna plane gliding over vast mountain ranges.

This is juxtaposed with melancholic, muted sequences of his daily survival routine with Josh Brolin’s Bangley.

There is a sense of desolation; unaddressed grief for Hig’s late wife and the sheer fatigue of scavenging alongside his loyal Belgian Malinois, Jasper.

The quiet routine switches gears dramatically during action sequences. Scott brings dynamic flair to the screen. Notably, when Bangley holds off a horde of Reapers, the cinematography turns into a video game-esque, FPS-style night-vision POV shot.

Ditto with the high-stakes chase at Margaret Qualley’s Cima’s place, and during the final act in the trap that is Grand Junction.

Brolin and Pearce anchor the wasteland

What’s problematic here is that the lead supports, Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce, give the film its most grounded and reliable energy.

Fresh off playing a father searching for answers in Weapons, Brolin again slips effortless into his role of Bangley.

This badass survivalist with ex-Marine credentials complement Hig with a contrasting manner, making defending their abandoned airstrip look routine.

The initial friction between Hig and Bangley also drives the film’s early momentum. Bangley is perfectly content just chilling at the airstrip, while Hig is consumed by a curiosity to see what’s left on the other side of the horizon given the tools he has.

Bangley eventually concedes to Hig’s urge to chase the radio signal, but gets an earned “I told you so” moment near the end. This is fittingly a chef’s kiss to his character’s consistent demeanor.

Yet you don’t mistake Bangley’s isolation for passivity as well. He is practically itching for a reason to unleash a barnyard full of weapons (pun not intended) he’s been hoarding. It’s as if treating the invading Reapers like the ultimate survival battle he’s eagerly been waiting for in the post-pandemic world.

Complementing this heavy-duty presence is Guy Pearce’s Pops. His fiercely overprotective father persona to Cima steals the spotlight given how everyone is cherishing what’s (or who’s) left.

There are sharp one-liners aimed at keeping Hig at arm’s length, as he’s understandably paranoid after surviving the apocalypse.

Together, these are two highly enjoyable flavors of post-apocalyptic fatherhood. Eventually, Bangley warms up as the entire protagonist group relocates to integrate with the Mennonites in the end.

Pacing turbulence, squandered climax

The film’s momentum begins to stall in the second half. Once Hig crash-lands and meets Cima nad Pops, the narrative slows down considerably.

Sure, it’s a way to establish the emotional foundation and romantic spark between the couple for audiences unfamiliar with Heller’s novel. Perhaps, an attempt to balance the quiet character work with the surrounding chaos.

However, the scales still tip heavily toward sluggish pacing, with the film losing much of the earned tension. This turns what should have been a tense journey into a noticeably dull movie experience.

Quite ironically, this is where Elordi and Qualley’s acting shines the most. It doesn’t help that there is an exposition-heavy writing as you just wait for a climactic finale to unfold, yet it never quite materializes.

By the time the story finally moves to Grand Junction, what should have been a defining act feels like a rushed afterthought.

Given the creative independence, Grand Junction could have been executed like a harrowing, inescapable maze. More frustratingly, the film completely drops the ball on its most disturbing revelation.

When the group stumbles upon roomfuls of discarded passports and piles of dead bodies, it should have been a heart-stopping, horror-thriller pivot. It’s the ultimate “we are completely fucked” moment, exposing the radio signal as a trap rather than a beacon of hope.

Had the film leaned into this nightmare, it would have rolled out the red carpet for Scott to flash his brilliance even further, recalling the tight, claustrophobic dread he mastered in Alien.

Instead, the movie glances past it in a split second. The protagonists overpower the opposition far too easily, robbing the climax of any real danger or lingering tension.

Should you watch it?

Undeniably, The Dog Stars movie succeeds in grounding itself on the human side of post-pandemic survival.

This isn’t a high-octane, “suspend-your-disbelief” blockbuster stuffed with outrageous sci-fi gimmicks; it is a thoroughly logical, realistic look at how real people would handle isolation, grief, and the instinct to rebuild community after everything crumbles.

The film’s core ideas are sound, and its emotional logic is intact. Still, it simply lacks the sharp execution and narrative punch needed to elevate it into a masterpiece.

On our Watch Scale, it falls under Wait on streaming. There’s plenty of technical flair and solid performances from grizzled veterans, but the rushed finale and missed horror-thriller pivot leaves you wishing Scott had been allowed to unleash the full extent of his cinematic powers.

The Philippines has an unquenchable love for game-based concerts (so *wink wink* please bring more of them). Though these concerts do generate a lot of hype, the drawback is that they often sell out way before most fans can grab tickets. If you’re an UNDERTALE fan, that experience might be rocking you right now, as both shows have already sold out. But fear not: UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony has just opened two more shows.

Late last month, Film Concerts PH, in partnership with SOHO Live, announced UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony happening on October 17. As expected, both shows, at 3pm and at 7pm, sold out very quickly after sales opened.

Today, the concert experience is opening two more shows on the next day, October 18. Like the original date, the two shows will happen at 3pm and at 7pm, allowing more fans to experience the concert.

The concert will be performed by the Filharmonika Orchestra and conducted by Thanapol Setabrahmana. Personally curated by creator Toby Fox and developed by Lambert Jackson with Materia Music, the concert experience showcases the game’s most recognizable tunes laid over gameplay footage playing simultaneously. Plus, for the world tour, the experience will have expanded scoring.

Tickets are available through Ticketmelon. Both dates will be held at The Proscenium Theater in Makati.

SEE ALSO: UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony hits Makati in October

As of today, the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will take around 650 hours to watch. So, if you wanted to catch up with everything before this December’s Avengers: Doomsday, you would need to allot around 5 hours per day to watch content from Marvel. For a lot of us, that sort of commitment is completely untenable. Thankfully, Marvel has released an official watchlist, paring the list down to something much more manageable.

Before the MCU got as big as it is today, it was fun to do a movie marathon heading into a major Marvel release. For example, when Avengers: Endgame came out, some theaters held continuous marathons lasting a few days. Take note that this was before Marvel officially included every TV show and legacy movie (like the X-Men universe).

Now, heading into Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel will not ask you to devote the rest of your year just for homework. Instead, here’s an official list you can use to catch up:

• X-Men
• X2
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• The Avengers
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Avengers: Endgame
• Loki
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
• Spider-Man: No Way Home
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Captain America: Brave New World
• Deadpool & Wolverine
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Thunderbolts
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Compared to the extensive list of everything Marvel, this official list is much more manageable, especially since there’s only one show (Loki). It’s also a veritable who’s who of the MCU, so it’s hard to get bored.

The official list as seen on Disney+

There are, however, a few surprises and spoilers. For one, if you’ve been avoiding the teasers and trailers, the X-Men films might be a shock to you. Likewise, the inclusion of the critically panned Brave New World is interesting.

The exclusions are just as noteworthy, too. Though the two earliest X-Men films are included, the list doesn’t add Days of Future Past, one of the first Marvel films to use time travel. Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t on here, despite Love, Thor’s adopted daughter, appearing in the trailers. Brand New Day is also missing, but that’s likely because the movie isn’t on Disney+ yet.

Avengers: Doomsday premieres in cinemas on December 18. Four months should be enough time to catch up on these titles.